I’m always curious about other people’s workflow. It’s just interesting what kind of tools they use to make things done. And this is not about finding their secret sauce which keeps them productive or something, it’s more about exploring new things and learning new ways to use your everyday tools.
That’s why I like to do pair programming from time to time. You just can seat near your team mate and see all these amazing things he does.
So here is my setup. I’ve structured it like they do it on usethis website:
- What hardware do you use?
- And what software?
- Things you want to try (this is my addition)
- What would be your dream setup?
What hardware do you use?
I use MacBook Pro 15”. Previously I had 13” MacBook and 17” Acer laptop before it. I don’t use an external display for one reason: I want to have the same setup everywhere - at work, home, coffeeshop, etc.
And what software?
From the info above it’s obvious that I’m using Mac OS X.
I love one-desktop-one-application approach. It keeps me from distractions and allows to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Usually I have 5-6 desktops:
- First one usually has only Activity Monitor to quickly kill frozen process. Also I use it for temporary apps like find something in the Downloads folder, upload a picture, mount a flash drive or quickly open mail app.
- Next desktop is always for the Chrome web browser.
- Then I have nerdy things like text editor and iTerm. I’m using Vim for several years, but this year I’ve started an expreriment trying different text editors. First two months I was using Sublime Text 3 and it’s great. This month I’ve set up the Emacs.
- Last two desktops are chats (Campfire, Hipchat, Skype) and Things app.
Things
Things app is for getting things out of my head. Every new idea, task or important email going to an Inbox folder in this app. Multiple times a day I’m processing Inbox and creating projects from it’s items.
This app helps me a lot. Maybe I’ll write about my Things workflow in my next posts.
iTerm & friends
I’m using tmux to manage my projects in console (running servers, background jobs, vim instances, ssh connections). With the help of tmuxinator I can define and save a layout of tmux windows and panes, running processes in each window and start each project with one commmand. Here I have my tmux config, you can borrow some stuff from it if you want.
Things you want to try
This section I’ve mostly written here for my future self to look back on.
- Emacs (already trying)
- Standing desk
- Ergo keyboard (like Kinesis Advantage or ErgoDox DIY keyboard)
What would be your dream setup?
Computer that just works. You know, all things in IT are broken - computers are stupid, open source tools can ruin your workflow from time to time, third-party services can leak your personal info to anyone. I want a machine/services which can recognize me through fingerprints or something like that so I don’t need passwords. I want an infinite secure backup and storage solution for my documents and photos. I want…